China Radio International (CRI) is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of China. It is currently headquartered in the Babaoshan area of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Shijingshan District Shijingshan District () is an urban district of the municipality of Beijing. It lies to the west of the urban core of Beijing, and is part of the Western Hills area, bordering the districts of Haidian to the northeast and east, Fengtai to the so ...

. It was founded on December 3, 1941, as Radio Peking. It later adopted the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

form Radio Beijing. CRI states that it "endeavours to promote favourable relations between the PRC and the world" while upholding the PRC's official positions. As with other nations' external broadcasters such as

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...

, BBC World Service and

Radio Australia ABC Radio Australia, also known as Radio Australia, is the international broadcasting and online service operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia's public broadcaster. Most programming is in English, with some in Tok ...

, CRI claims to "play a significant role in the PRC's soft power strategy" and

Go Out policy Go Out policy () is the People's Republic of China's current strategy to encourage its enterprises to invest overseas. Most nations favour attracting inward foreign investment, and support outward foreign investment only passively. The People ...

, aiming to expand the influence of Chinese culture and media in a global stage. CRI attempts to employ

new media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

to compete with other international media. Unlike other broadcasters, CRI's control via indirect majority ownership or financial support of radio stations in various nations is not publicly disclosed. CRI is presently the international radio arm of the China Media Group, under the control of the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, created following the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in March 2018. In February 2020, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

designed CRI and other Chinese state-owned media outlets as foreign missions.

History

Radio was first introduced in China in the 1920s and 1930s. However, few households had radio receivers. A few cities had commercial stations. Most usage of radio was for political purpose, frequently on a local area level. The

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

first used radio in Yanan Shaanxi Province in March 1940 with a transmitter imported from

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

Xinhua Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

New Chinese Radio (XNCR) went on the air from Yanan on December 30, 1940. XNCR transmitted to a larger geographical area after 1945, and its programs became more regular and formalised with broadcasts of news, official announcements, war bulletins, and art and literary programs. The English service started on September 11, 1947, transmitting as XNCR from a cave in Shahe in the

Taihang Mountains The Taihang Mountains () are a Chinese mountain range running down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan and Hebei provinces. The range extends over from north to south and has an average elevation of . The principal peak is ...

, when China was in the midst of a civil war, to announce newly conquered areas and broadcast a Chinese political and cultural perspective to the world at large. The station moved from the Taihang Mountains to the capital,

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, when The People's Republic of China was formed in 1949. Its name was changed to Radio Peking on April 10, 1950, and to Radio Beijing in 1983. On January 1, 1993, the name of the station was again changed, this time to China Radio International, in order to avoid any confusion with local Beijing radio broadcasting. Its online broadcasting platform: China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN) was formally established in 2011, as a joint venture of China Radio International,

Huawen Media Investment China Media Group Co., Ltd. (), or CMG, formerly Huawen Media Investment, is a publicly listed Chinese holding company in the media sector. It is one of the 500 components of the SZSE Component Index, as well as the sub-index SZSE 300 Index and ...

, JinZhengYuan, Youku, Oriental Times Media and Suning Holdings Group.

Short wave/international broadcasting

CRI broadcasts via shortwave radio, satellite and the Internet in English and numerous other languages (see below). There are also numerous AM and FM relays. Shortwave broadcasts in English are targeted at North America,

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, the Caribbean,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and the South Pacific. CRI maintains direct shortwave broadcasts to developed, media-rich countries in North America and Europe, even as major Western broadcasters (such as BBC World Service,

and

Radio Netherlands Radio Netherlands (RNW; nl, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep) was a public radio and television network based in Hilversum, producing and transmitting programmes for international audiences outside the Netherlands from 1947 to 2012. Its services i ...

) reduce or discontinue such broadcasts.

Programming

Mandarin radio channels

At the beginning of 1984, it started to broadcast home service to the

area on AM and FM frequencies. The service later expanded to dozens of major cities across the PRC, providing listeners inside the PRC with timely news and reports, music, weather, English and Chinese learning skills, as well as other services.

CRI News Radio (90.5 FM)

CRI News Radio (CRI环球资讯广播) was established on 28 September 2005, which takes advantage of CRI's journalists from all around the world and reports international (and partially domestic) news, sport, entertainment and lifestyle programmes for domestic listeners in Mandarin Chinese. Its aim is to make CRI News Radio a first-class national news radio brand and its slogans are 'First News, News First', 'On-the-Spot China, Live World' etc. CRI News Radio can be heard online and in

on the radio on 90.5 FM; in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

90.6 FM; in Chongqing 91.7 FM; in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

107.1 FM; in Shandong 89.8 FM; in

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

90.1 FM. Popular Shows
Laowai's Viewpoint
( zh, s=老外看点 , p=Lǎowài kàndiǎn), an international news program with three hosts from different countries, frequent hosts include: Peter Yu (Chinese), Julien Gaudfroy (French),

Elyse Ribbons Elyse Ribbons (October 27, 1980 - ) is an American entrepreneur, writer, businesswoman, and playwright who lives and works in Beijing. Known in China by her Chinese name Liu Suying (柳素英) who spends time on both corporate work media work (vi ...

(American), Li Xin (Chinese), and Soojin Zhao (Korean).
Bianzou Biankan
( zh, s=边走边看 , p=Biānzǒu biānkàn), a travel show dedicated to a new location every episode

( zh, s=新财富时代, p=Xīncáifù shídài), a financial talk show

Chinese podcasts

The following programmes can be heard on the Mandarin version of the podcast from the World Radio Network: * News ( zh, s=新闻节目 , p=xīnwén jiémù), which comes from the

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...

. * ''Tángrénjiē'' ( zh, s=唐人街, p=Tángrénjiē, l=Chinatown), a programme about overseas Chinese * Weather forecasts around China * Sports This broadcast was originally targeted at

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in the United Kingdom. In 2006, they removed the "London" reference, which was part of the introduction as ''"Ni hao London. Hello London"''

English radio channels

CRI in English (846 AM, 1008 AM; 91.5 FM)

The CRI English channels that can be heard online are: * ''CGTN Radio'' (846 & 1008 AM in Beijing) * '' EZFM (also known as Easy FM)'' * '' Round the Clock'' (Internet only) ** ''Voices from Other Lands'' is a weekly English radio program featuring entrepreneurs who originated outside of China doing business in China, hosted by Guanny Liu. *

CRI 91.9 FM CRI 91.9 FM is a radio station in Nairobi, Kenya. It is part of China Radio International (CRI). It broadcasts in English language, English, Swahili language, Swahili and Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin. It launched on February 27, 2006. Programming Th ...

(''Kenya 91.9 FM'') *

Chinese Studio ''Chinese Studio'' () is a 5-minute English radio program that is a Chinese lesson that occurs at the end of each China Radio International broadcast. For example, at the end of '' China Drive'', this program will air. The Chinese lessons are u ...

is a 5-minute segment that follows most CRI English programmes *

China Drive ''China Drive'' is the only daily bi-lingual news and lifestyle radio show in China. It is broadcast seven days a week, 5–7 pm Beijing time on China Radio International and focusses on life in China. The programme has four main presenters. On Ai ...

is an English radio show about life in the PRC * CRI Sri Lanka FM 97.9 in Sri Lanka in Sinhala and English (05:00—00:00 Sri Lanka Time)

English Podcasts

CRI offers a list of podcast programs in English: * ''Hourly News'' * ''The Beijing Hour'' *RoundTable * ''Studio Plus'' * ''Today'' * ''

'' *More to Read

Holiday Broadcasts

During major Chinese holidays (dubbed Golden Week), such as Chinese New Year,

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Tr ...

, and Mid-Autumn Festival, China Radio International typically broadcasts special programmes such as: * ''Growing Up In China'' (during the May Day holiday) Most of these programmes are not typical of the broadcast during the other parts of the year. The analogy is similar to Christmas music broadcasts in the United States.

Olympic Radio

In July 2006, CRI launched a new radio station called CRI Olympic Radio at 900 AM in Beijing. This special broadcast was done in Mandarin, Korean, English, Russian, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and German 24 hours a day. This service was terminated in late 2008 after the Beijing Olympics and now the frequency 900 AM is occupied by CRI News Radio which only covers Beijing.

Pay television channels

Other than radio channels, CRI also operates these pay television channels via satellite airing: *

Shark Shopping Channel Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

(聚鲨环球精选) (de facto free channel in several local DTV networks) * Global Sightseeing Channel (环球奇观) * China Transport Channel (中国交通) (co-operate with MOT)

Languages

China Radio International broadcasts in the following languages: The Tibetan, Uygur and Kazakh services are broadcast in association with local radio stations (Tibet People's Broadcasting Station and Xinjiang People's Broadcasting Station).

Joint ventures

China International Broadcasting Network

China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN, traded as , an internet TV service, was a joint venture of China Radio International with other companies. The company was owned by Global Broadcasting Media Group (, a joint venture (50–50) of China Radio International and , literally ''JinZhengYuan Union Investment Holding'') for 34.0004% stake,

for 30.9996% stake, a subsidiary () of listed company Oriental Times Media () for 15% stake, the operator of Youku () for 10% stake and Suning Holdings Group, the parent company of

PPTV PPTV () is a Chinese video streaming website. Its predecessor, PPLive, was peer-to-peer streaming video freeware created at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei Province. The group of companies that runs the websi ...

for 10% stake.

GBTimes

CRI owns 60% of Finland-based GBTimes. GBTimes is headed by Zhao Yinong and operates radio stations across Europe that broadcast CRI-produced content.

References

Citations

Sources

* Bishop, Robert L., "Qi Lai! Mobilizing One Billion Chinese: The Chinese Communication System", Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1989. * Chang, Won Ho, "Mass Media in China: The History and the Future", Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1989. * Hamm, Charles, "Music and Radio in the PRC," Asian Music, Spring/Summer 1991, vXXII, n2, p. 28-29. * Howkins, John, "Mass Communication in China", New York, NY: Annenberg/ Longman Communication Books, 1982.

External links

* * {{Authority control Chinese-language radio stations Mandarin-language radio stations Tibetan-language radio stations Communist propaganda Multilingual news services Radio stations established in 1941 Mass media in Beijing International broadcasters Shortwave radio stations Multilingual broadcasters Disinformation operations 1941 establishments in China Conspiracist media Uyghur genocide denial